The lampings are hardly skeletal this year, but quite fleshy and overflowing. Polyvinyl and Paste Magazine have announced the many different iterations of Skeletal Lamping which will be available upon the album’s release on October 7. There will be seven different formats from which to choose: CD, 180-gram LP, T-shirt, tote bag, button set, paper lantern, and wall decal set. All seven will feature a digital download of the album. Pre-orders should be available around September 1.

 

The first single from Skeletal Lamping is “Id Engager,” a 7″ to be released by Polyvinyl Records on August 29.  You can pre-order now at their website.  The vinyl will be pressed in three different colors–blue, gold, or purple–and you can pick your color at $5 each or grab all three for $10.

The limited pressing includes an exclusive non-album B-side and a free digital download of the songs.

A few Skeletal Lamping listening parties are popping up around the States. Here’s one in Madison, WI, sponsored by Muzzle of Bees and Polyvinyl:

The track listing and album art, as announced by Pitchfork. Also a big and warm welcome to Ahmed Gallab (Sinkane), of Montreal’s newest member.

SKELETAL LAMPING

01 Nonpareil of Favor
02 Wicked Wisdom
03 For Our Elegant Caste
04 Touched Something’s Hollow
05 An Eluardian Instance
06 Gallery Piece
07 Women’s Studies Victims
08 St.Exquisite’s Confessions
09 Triphallus, to Punctuate!
10 And I’ve Seen a Bloody Shadow
11 Plastis Wafers
12 Death Is Not a Parallel Move
13 Beware Our Nubile Miscreants
14 Mingusings
15 Id Engager

heylolo!

we have a HUGE tour planned for this Fall.
A spectacle beyond spectacles!
Hope you can join us!

for the latest updates also check our booking agent’s website: the Kork Agency
find tickets: ticketmaster, ticketweb, tickets.com, etix, livenation
click on the venue links for ticket/venue info. tickets may be cheaper when buying directly from the venue.

AA=All Ages

U.S.

October 7 - Durham, NC - Carolina Theatre AA
October 8 - Asheville, NC - The Orange Peel AA
October 9 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club AA
October 10 - New York, NY - Roseland AA
October 24 - St. Louis, MO - The Pageant AA *
October 25 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue AA
October 26 - Milwaukee, WI - Pabst Theater AA *
October 27 - Chicago, IL - The Riviera AA *
October 28 - Toronto, ON - Queen Elizabeth Theatre AA
October 29 - Montréal, QC - Metropolis AA
October 30 - Boston, MA - Orpheum AA
October 31 - Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory AA
November 1 - Richmond, VA - The National AA
November 8 - Atlanta, GA - The Tabernacle AA
November 11 - New Orleans, LA - Howlin Wolf 18+
November 12 - Houston, TX - Warehouse Live AA
November 13 - Austin, TX - TBA AA
November 14 - Dallas, TX - House of Blues AA
November 15 - Lawrence, KS - Liberty Hall AA
November 16 - Denver, CO - The Ogden Theatre 16+
November 17 - Murray, UT - Murray Super Theater AA
November 19 - Seattle, WA - Showbox SoDo AA **
November 20 - Portland, OR - Roseland AA **
November 21 - San Francisco, CA - Regency Center Grand Ballroom AA **
November 22 - Los Angeles, CA - TBA AA **

* w/ Sinkane
**w/ HEALTH

Europe
find tickets: seetickets.com, ticketweb uk, www.wegottickets.com

August 8 - Myslowice, POLAND - Poland Off Festival
August 9 - London, ENGLAND - Field Day Festival
August 10 - Leicester, ENGLAND - Summer Sundae Festival
October 15 - Paris, FRANCE - Elysée Montmarte
October 16 - London, ENGLAND - Koko
October 17 - Barcelona, SPAIN - Razzmatazz
October 18 - Rome, ITALY - Circolo degli Artisti
October 19 - Berlin, GERMANY - Lido
October 20 - Stockholm, SWEDEN - Debaser Medis
October 21 - Copenhagen, DENMARK - Amager Bio

A very in-depth interview has been posted up at You Ain’t No Picasso, with thoughts on Skeletal Lamping, and how it marks a break with the past. Find out what Alabee’s favorite song is, why “Feminine Effects” didn’t make the final cut, and more. All I can say is, “35 minutes worth of [unreleased] material”? That’s not an EP, that’s a second album. I want to hear it. Read the whole interview here.

From Billboard:

Divorce and mental illness are not often hallmarks of danceable indie rock records, but they played a big part on Of Montreal’s critically acclaimed 2007 release, “Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?”

On “Skeletal Lamping,” due Oct. 7 via Polyvinyl, “I’ve tried to incorporate more tension and dissonance, while still maintaining a super poppy sound,” group leader Kevin Barnes tells Billboard. “I think the album is more bipolar than schizophrenic, though. I guess it represents its author more closely in that way.”

Barnes says “Beware Our Nubile Miscreants” is “the most wicked thing I’ve ever written,” while opener “Nonpareil of Favor” “definitely goes somewhere musically that is totally unlike anything I’ve ever done before.”

For Barnes, delving into deeply personal topics has become something of a therapeutic outlet. “I start to feel unbalanced if too much time passes without me being able to record,” he says. “I need to shut out the world and disappear into the void. In a way it is like meditation. It definitely gives me a sense of value too. Even if other people hate what I create, as long as I like it, I’m fine. The new record doesn’t deal with as many romantic or psychological issues. It is a very personal record still. It is more sexual and frisky than ‘Hissing.’”

In a recent MySpace posting, Barnes expressed worry that “some people are going to misunderstand” the new album, but he now says he was more concerned about “the sort of ‘recreational’ Of Montreal fan. I’ve decided that I’m not going to even bother with them. Some of the lyrical content on ‘Skeletal Lamping’ might be considered a bit lewd, insulting or creepy by an easily offended listener. This record is only for broad-minded people, who like to dance, make love and freak the f*ck out. It’s not for most inanimate objects.”

Barnes is now preparing to unveil the new material in a live setting. An international tour is on tap for around when “Skeletal Lamping” hits stores, after which, “We’ll take a little break over the holidays and then do it again. We’re going to be attempting some new theatrical things this time and we’re adding another musician to the live band. I’m looking forward to the madness.”

Kevin on Skeletal Lamping, from the MySpace blog:

i’ve finished the new album. i’ve been working on it for over a year. it’s mastered and ready to go.

it won’t come out till october though. i am very happy with it. i worry that some people are going to misunderstand it. there’s nothing i can do about that though, now, it is done. anyways,i didn’t create it to give people something to like. i created it because i was compelled to.

it is possible to view this album as one long composition, with lots of different movements, or just as a collection of pop songs. i wanted to make an album that was unpredictable and, at times,startling, yet always hummable and catchy. some of the transitions are intentionally awkward. i did this to keep the listener off guard and to dismantle people’s perception of how an album is supposed to be constructed. i am so bored with art that makes sense and “works”. i wanted to do somethings that didn’t “work”. very few things pique our interest while they are working as we expect them to, things are far more interesting when they are not working. shocking people though, just for the sake of it, is so mundane. nothing on Skeletal Lamping was intended to shock. i just feel that,in most contemporary songs, you can basically finish the artist’s sentences,musically and lyrically. i wanted to make an album where that was not possible.

i wanted to make a record that could truly surprise a listener. to create something that was, in turns, enraging, joyous, discomforting, playful, lovely, unpleasant, freaky, mesmeric…something that came close to capturing the labyrinthine complexity of this human consciousness.

i spend most of my time in a state of mild confusion and pensiveness. i imagine most people do too. this record is my attempt to bring all of my puzzling, contradicting, disturbing, humorous…fantasies, ruminations and observations to the surface, so that i can better dissect and understand their reason for being in my head. hence the title, Skeletal Lamping. Lamping is the name of a rather dreadful hunting technique where, hunters go into the forest at night, flood an area in light, then shoot,or capture,the animals as they panic and run from their hiding places.

this album is my attempt at doing this to my proverbial skeletons. i haven’t yet decided if i should shoot or just capture them though.

Static Television features an interview with B.P. Helium in the latest episode.

The first part is featured at the 14:00 mark, in which he talks about his time with the band, touring, and the original 60’s influence of the early records. This is followed by the David Barnes-directed Gronlandic Edit video.

The second part is at the 31:45 mark, and BP discusses modern influences and the current stage show. Then live footage of Rapture Rapes the Muses is shown.

Thanks to cirrocumulus for the head’s up!